Download Advertising Made Easy and Effective

Advertising Made Easy and Effective
By Lyle Bunn
March 2009
The following was edited to shorter form for inclusion in the Digital Signage/Digital Outof-Home supplement carried in the March 20, 2009 edition of USA Today.
Consumers are now telling marketers that place-based digital advertising is the number
one way to grab their attention. OTX (Online Testing exchange) conducted a nationwide
survey with consumers where people reported that this media was one of the most unique
and entertaining ways to capture their attention. In fact, 63% reported that place-based
digital advertising catches their attention more than any other media, including
advertising on television, the web and other forms of tradition media such as newspapers,
magazines and radio (Digital Out-of-Home Media Awareness and Attitude Study, 20072008).
“Consumers are more in control of their media consumption than ever” says Suzanne
Alecia, President of the Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB), which assists
marketers in making informed decisions regarding out-of-home media, the fastest
growing ad segment next to online. OVAB members include a collective 400,000+
screens in 35,000 venues reaching billions of impressions per month that can help
advertisers zero in on your consumers everywhere they are when they're not at home.
Innovation in technology has fueled this phenomenon and it has turned out to be both a
blessing and a curse for marketers today. The blessing is that new technologies offer
marketers unprecedented flexibility, target-ability and accountability in reaching and
impacting their best prospects. The curse is that in many ways the rapid advancement of
technologies and consumer adoption of them is far outpacing the marketers’ ability to
take advantage of them in smart and effective ways. So how do digital & video out of
home networks stack up in this rapidly changing landscape? They are a perfect storm of
advanced technology platforms, presented in front of predictable & measurable consumer
behaviors, and offer marketing accountability.
“What’s more, consumers love them and they are easy for marketers to use” says Alecia.
Marketers are excited about the unique opportunities for creative advertising executions
and their ability to leverage the physical environment the consumer is in when watching
these networks. Delivering relevant messages based on where the network is being seen
is totally unique to this medium and consumers time and again prove through research
that this relevancy is important to them. Average recall rates for digital & video out-ofhome advertising networks are around 40 percent. Compare that to other traditional
media recall rates like TV (32%), radio (27%) and magazines (21%) and it’s easy to see
why this medium can be very effective for marketers.
Improved audience metrics and accountability, coupled with the consumer’s on-the-go
lifestyle are two major factors in the acceleration of growth for the digital out-of-home
space. OVAB’s publication of its Audience Metrics Guidelines has set a course for this
industry to develop best practices and standards so that marketers can better evaluate the
efficacy and impact of this platform.
Jack Sullivan, SVP and Out-of-Home Media Director, Starcom Worldwide says “Digital
Signage brings the human experience to media. Instead of shouting out to consumers,
digital signage reaches the decision maker at the time of purchase. Because of the
relevant proximity of these messages to the decision makers, they are more prone to
make a stronger emotional connection, thus creating a more impactful and longer retained
impression”.
“Digital Place-Based Media is valuable in numerous ways to both advertisers, as well as
consumers” notes Daniel Wilkins, President of n2 adding that “advertisers can take
advantage of the large cross section of Digital Place-Based Networks to target almost any
demographic or socio-demographic group while delivering a message that is specific and
feels highly personal. He adds “This allows for the advertiser to communicate to their
potential customer as they move throughout their day via channels relevant to their
specific lifestyle. It can also be used successfully to drive a call to action by engaging the
consumer via a SMS offer or Bluetooth technology. It provides an effective platform for
a "pulling" approach to marketing vs. the "push" that most consumers are used to.
Wilkins continues “the consumer feels more in control, which is paramount in today's
world. Also, Brands who are heavy users of television advertising can take advantage of
a new medium that is in some ways an extension of something they already have a
comfort level with. While I am not advocating placing a television ad on a Digital PlaceBased Network, those Brands do have a library of content that can in many cases, when
done correctly, be affectively repurposed into relevant and valuable content without
incurring a large production cost”.
“The consumer on the other hand is provided with information that they want or need and
thus probably would have sought out anyway, and experience the advertising content that
accompanies with a more receptive frame of mind. “When done appropriately” Wilkins
says “Digital Place-Based Networks can become a valued addition to the consumer's
everyday life, especially in environments where the network creates a wait-warping effect
cutting down on perceived wait times”.
Rob Gorrie, President and Founder of ADCENTRICITY, Inc., which specializes in
supporting brands and agencies in understanding “what works” in Digital OOH media.
The firm provides brands a “1 Plan, 1 Buy, 1 Bill” solution across multiple Network
partners in North America says “Digital OOH has been steadily making believers out of
innovative marketers who are seeing sales lift, increased campaign activity and engaged
consumers. We get some surprised responses like that from Mike Wilson, Vice President
for The Element Agency said “This out-of-home digital has been a real great boost for
us”.
Digital OOH helps both retailers and brands on the “Path-to-purchase” and at the “Pointof-Purchase”. Not only can you use the medium to inform, educate and engage while on
the go - you can effectively hold the consumer’s hand right through their purchasing
cycles to the retail environment and hand them off. This allows for a consistent
experience in brand media use and results in a benefit to both brand and retailer by
serving up a potential customer who has already been educated to the benefits of a
particular product or brand.
Integration is key when running Digital OOH campaigns. While the medium itself can
be used for much more than direct response programs, using Digital OOH as a “Drive to
Web” or “Drive to Store” works very well. Integrating mobile into the mix also allows
for on the spot consumer engagement with contests, coupons or alerts. Finally, using
web, mobile and digital OOH together (the new media triad) allows for an ongoing
conversation and the ability to regularly update your in-venue campaigns with content
supplied directly from your customer.
As one of our agency partners said to us after a campaign: “Digital OOH was by far the
most efficient portion of my spend”. Despite the good results and “boost” that you can
get from the medium, it’s still a very cost effective medium because it’s still a relatively
young industry”. More importantly, if you know how to use Digital OOH properly, you
can hyper-target audiences and venues and reach only the audiences that fit your
campaign audience profiles. This eliminates media waste, saves valuable ad dollars and
results in more bang for your media buck making it a very good investment.
Gorrie says that the “the biggest surprises for brands and agencies have been the response
rates achieved by well thought out, well planned, creative campaigns in Digital
OOH. It’s generally very difficult to achieve a 10% lift in activity or sales over the
month before but we’ve experienced that type of jump regularly because we can speak to
people in a contextually relevant manner that’s not intrusive to their lives – which makes
Digital OOH more accepted by consumers and therefore more impactful”.
Consumer feedback has caught the attention of advertisers, and they are already starting
to see the benefits leveraging this new media as a bigger part of their marketing strategy.
For example, a major telecommunications service provider recently ran a national
campaign using SeeSawNetwork.com in multiple types of places like health clubs,
university campuses, retail-entertainment stores, bars and restaurants targeting specific
zip codes to promote a new wireless and television service offering. Research conducted
by Edison Media Research showed reaching mobile consumers in multiple places during
their weekly routines in this campaign resulted in 59% of respondents who saw the ad
reporting that they were interested in learning more about the service.
Patrick Moorhead, Director, Emerging Media RazorFish, is responsible for evaluating a
wide range of cutting edge technology opportunities in the marketplace with a specific
focus on both mobile and digital signage, and for forming strategy to help agency clients
realize and incorporate those technologies into their marketing efforts with tangible
results. He is a member of, the OVAB Agency Board of Advisors, and the Digital
Signage Association Board of Agency Advisors, and the Mobile Marketing Association.
Moorhead says “leveraging the unique reach and micro-targeting localization potential of
digital out of home provides retailers with brick and mortar locations the opportunity to
personalize and localize drive to store messages and deliver them in a highly relevant and
geo / demo targeted cadence. For one of our clients, we are exploring using a variety of
DOOH venues to reach specific segments – Alpha Moms, HHI earners, people who are
out and about during daytime hours – and linking those demo specific messages to retail
locations within .5 miles of the stores with a drive to store message / offer. The idea here
is that by speaking to specific segments very directly (as opposed to general brand
messages) and linking that cadence to a compelling offer that is actionable (indicating
that the store with the offer is in close proximity to the viewer at that moment), we’ll be
able to move a needle on both foot traffic to the location, and conversions as a result of
increased store visitors. No other media offers this kind of ability to scale reach, and
target consumers when they are very close to the Point of Purchase”.
About Digital In-Store, Moorhead says “smart retailers are bringing vitality and energy to
the in-store experience while also linking internet browsing and shopping research tom
the in-store experience. By deploying strategic digital retail experiences like we’ve done
with Microsoft Surface for AT&T, retailers can close the loop between these two
shopping channels and give the consumer the sense that the brand KNOWS them, no
matter where and how they choose to shop”.
Moorhead notes that “considering that the digital out of home advertising opportunity in
the US has a daily reach potential that exceed TV and Radio combined, and has a much
lower “ad annoyance factor” than TV or radio, audience reach devices such as Digital
Signage are compelling”.
“The adoption of Digital Out-of-Home is now a foregone conclusion” says Jason Kates,
President, RMS Networks, observing that “The concept of digitally delivering rich media
to targeted destinations is widely accepted due to the success of the internet and the years
of education, experimentation and execution by DOOH. Accountability has been the
ultimate test of DOOH. RMS has documented more than $900 million of incremental
sales based on studies and data coming from retailers and the major brands over the last
14 years. Proof proof proof....This is what clients and agencies needed”.
RMS Networks offers “rVue,” a social site for advertisers and destinations to
communicate, negotiate and execute campaigns-all things DOOH-digital signage, mobile
and web. (Very similar to how Google works.) DOOH from our perspective now
includes an integrated approach incorporating interactive marketing, social marketing and
mobile marketing. This 360 degree approach is more comprehensive and in reality is
more tangible than just digital signage alone. Example. I see a well produced spot for
Lasik eye correction on a digital sign in an elevator and want to learn more. I send the
short-code from my phone, and watch the short video which explains the benefits of
investing in myself. I click through to make an appointment for a free comprehensive
eye exam.
As a consumer, you’ve opted in and received the right info and the right time. As a
marketer, your target found you, the ultimate for the marketer. Today it’s not so much
about demographics anymore but rather relevance.
Until recently one of the challenges that faced the place-based digital advertising
community was how to create the scale required by this media to convince national
advertisers to shift part of their media budgets to include this new media. Many of the
networks in this space are regional in nature resulting in significant fragmentation of the
media and creating a barrier to entry for media agencies representing national advertising
clients.
SeeSaw Networks has taken steps to make DOOH media planning and buying easier and
more efficient through an innovative online service that allows marketers to customize
their vast national network to reach a specific target audience according to demographic,
geographic location and consumer behavior. By creating a virtual national network by
combining multiple affiliate networks within a “super” network, SeeSaw created a vast
national network to enable advertisers to easily reach an audience across multiple
networks in places like coffee shops, gas stations, health clubs, bars and restaurants,
grocery stores university campuses and sporting events, to name a few. This was a game
changer and for the first time really allowed media agencies to reach a broader audience
in an efficient and cost effective way. National advertisers took notice, and market
leaders such as Microsoft, Verizon, Disney and Bloomingdales’ use the SeeSaw service.
SeeSaw Networks delivers advertising in places where people go in their daily lives –
places like gas stations, coffee shops, grocery stores and health clubs. SeeSaw reaches
more people in more places than any other digital video network. With more than 40
digital signage networks across 30 different types of locations, SeeSaw is the most
extensive national digital video network with over 26,000 venues nationally and growing.
SeeSaw delivers over 50 million weekly gross impressions — significantly more than
primetime TV spots at a fraction of the cost. SeeSaw operates SeeSawAds.com, a media
service that enables agencies to easily plan, buy and measure place-based digital video
advertising. On SeeSawAds.com, agencies customize campaigns across different venues,
markets and demographics with unprecedented precision. With SeeSaw, advertisers can
intercept people in their daily life patterns where they work, play and socialize.
Television broadcast buyers see opportunities to extend their existing television buys
across a national video platforms that include in-store TV and Out-of-Home displays.
Internet media buyers see digital signage as “the Outernet” to extend the reach of internet
content and video.
Digital agencies use digital media to drive awareness and engagement in places that
people go everyday.
Lyle Bunn is a highly regarded independent advisor and educator in North America’s
digital signage/digital out-of-home sector. [email protected]